Italy: Fugitive mafia killer arrested in Portugal

Lisbon, 3 May (AKI) - Italian gangster and convicted murderer Giovanni Capone Perna was arrested in Portugal on Thursday after seven months on the run.

Perna, a member of the powerful Camorra mafia from Naples, was evading a 30-year sentence for the 2003 killing of Francesco Esposito, a mafia boss.

Perna could be extradited back to Italy within the next few days. He was arrested in Holivera do Hospital, a town in central Portugal

Esposito was killed on the orders of clan bosses eyeing who were valuable public works contracts.

The Camorra has its roots in and around the southern Italian city of Naples. The group together with Sicily's Cosa Nostra and the Calabria region's 'Ndrangheta is one of Italy's top three crime networks.

Perna is a member of the Pagnozzi crime family, whose top boss Domenico Pagnozzi was arrested in Rome in 2003.